Slideshow: Peugeot 308

LAST YEAR Peugeot launched the 308 hatchback and loudly trumpeted the
company’s simultaneous move upmarket — out of the studio flat where the
Nissans and the Fords eke out their existence, and towards the balconied
penthouse with the river views where the well-heeled Germans live.

Were people convinced? Well, the 308 is the reigning European Car of the Year,
if that carries any weight with you — as well it might, although perhaps, by
way of perspective, one should note that the recently crowned European song
of the year is Rise Like a Phoenix, an ungainly lump of over-revved Austrian
power ballad that this column would have given three stars at best if we had
been reviewing it.

Anyway, now here’s the 308 SW, or station wagon, which is where we find out
what happens to the 308’s jury-swaying esprit and upwardly mobile ambitions
when you